Is Markbass really all that??

[Lesfunk]

As far as the repairs go, I had one break once. I sent it to the authorized repair center in California
And two weeks later I got it back, fixed.
So much for that.
Sometimes gear breaks, no matter the brand.

 

[Bass'd on a true story]

I won't say much on this, because I haven't owned Markbass gear, but I'll say this: I think that their gear gets overly lumped together. Every Markbass rig I've played has been very different. Some of their gear is very transparent and some is quite diverse. You might not like what they are doing, but I think they are doing a great many things quite well. I have particularly (and quite recently) gassed for the Markbass Casa. It sounds dope and far from transparent. It's like a 60's tube amp, but class D. Anyways, like what you like and don't like what you don't. I think Markbass is a cool brand and I'm probably going to get a Casa within the next year.

 

[JazzCrazy]

Lesfunk, in California? (Thought I quoted you) Can you please pm me where?

As far as your observations concerning SWR are concerned, Marcus Miller stated that he told Marco DeVigiles that his signature amp must have more "booty" than the other MB amps, & DeVigiles replied that he can make it sound anyway he wanted it. Miller's demand for more booty might confirm your view that MB heads lack SWR's boominess. I have no personal observations on Markbass heads. On this site I had been advised to stay away from MB cabs if I like SWR cabs, because the highs of the MB tweeters were warm. Apparently that was before the compression tweeters used in my Richard Bona Signature cab, or the MM Signature cabs. Those do come close to SWR

 

[Lesfunk]

Mark Bass Repair Service Center, Mark Acoustic Repair Service Center

P.s. I haven’t heard any of the Marcus signature stuff

 

[Element Zero]

I never had a bad experience with them. I liked the CMD102P I had for a couple years. Served me well. Got to play on a Little Mark Tube 800 and the CL810 for a few months and it was niiiiiiiiice. Overall, I liked them but didn’t have the feature set I needed.

 

[twinjet]

First time poster here and I apologize off the bat for a somewhat negative start but here goes - I have never had a single positive experience with Markbass gear. Am I missing something? I've owned MB gear on multiple occasions (Why? Because it kept getting recommended and i'm a sucker for yellow and black) and I've always been left disappointed by the sound i've gotten. I've owned combos, separates , pretty much every combination and i've sold it all. I recently moved to Epifani gear Pic 999 head with the TOUR 4 X 10 and I absolutely love it - Punchy , clean and tons of headroom. I would say definitely in the same price point as MB but really just blows MB away IMO. Tell me MB users - What's the big deal? Sacrilegious, i know

Sorry you don't like MB. My first time owning was a Micromark 801. 45W of punch. Great sound, really liked it. Some disagree.

 

[baxter_x]

To me Mark bass is way to sterile. I never liked any of their stuff. It's just lightweight and convenient

 

[Anders Barfod]

MB gear has a nice mix projection but I just don't care for their nasal upper mid range, to aggressive for my taste and there's really nothing you can do about it unless you add other preamps/fine EQs to preshape your bass sound.

Nadal upper mid?
From their amp or their cabs?
Their amps has a 360Hz low lid pot and a High mid pot at 800Hz.. And you cant dial out the upper nasal mids??

 

[cnltb]

Is Markbass really all that??
For some it is, for some it's not.
For me it isn't.
Especially now , that every Tom ,Dick and Harry build good and light equipment.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I like what they do but to me they all sound and feel the same regardless of the range.

 

[Charlzm]

I recently played through another bassist's Ninja combo (I don't recall which wattage); I did not like the sound I got out of it at all. Out of respect for her, however, I did not touch her settings, so it's possible I could have found something I liked.

I recall playing MB amps at Guitar Center a decade ago when I worked there and everything I tried sounded honky (as in, mid-rangey).

 

[beaglesandbass]

I've only used one Markbass amp, a 15" combo that the house provided.

I wasn't a fan and wouldn't buy one. I'm in no hurry to use another one.

 

[Coot]

I had a little Mark III for quite a while.. I sold it for a Mesa Subway 800+. It was light ,sturdily built and no issues. Just kinda bland sounding (to me). Not bad equipment..just not for me. never really wrap my head around the tone controls as well..

 

[andykeating]

Really not a fan. Used Markbass stuff a few times, twice in a rehearsal space when my old Ashdown amp was in for a repair and once as part of the supplied backline at a festival.

Complete ****. Sterile, nothing-y sound and absolutely no character. Might be alright for someone playing plinky plonky stuff with an acoustic band in a cafe as background music, but not for anyone taking their tone and art seriously and who wants a bit of grunt from their amp.

Its as though they've gone down the practicality route and made their gear super-light whilst sacrificing all character, tone and power. Give me my heavy SVT-CL and sore arms any day of the week.

 

[Alban]

I loved my 121p combo with matching ny121 cab.
I am questioning their recent design choices though; the new 2x10 Little Marcus combo houses a 500w/4 ohms amp, but you can only connect the internal 8 ohms speakers to it...

 

[DirkP]

I loved my 121p combo with matching ny121 cab.
I am questioning their recent design choices though; the new 2x10 Little Marcus combo houses a 500w/4 ohms amp, but you can only connect the internal 8 ohms speakers to it...

It's really a bit confusing. But they use the Little Markus head in this combo that only has one speaker out. The LMII and III have a speakon out and an additional 1/4" out for speakers.
But nearly all speakers I know have an input for another speaker. So you would have to connect your external cabinet to the speaker-out of the head, but then you would need an extension cable to plug the cable of the internal speaker into the other cabinet 'cause I'm pretty sure the cable for the internal speaker is rather short. I guess for reasons of costs they didn't want to change the head for the combo.
Or for simplicity:
At least, they should put something like this into the package:

 

[Sparkl]

Nadal upper mid?
From their amp or their cabs?
Their amps has a 360Hz low lid pot and a High mid pot at 800Hz.. And you cant dial out the upper nasal mids??

Combination of both. Also, the mid weirdness extends past 800hz all the way up to 2khz-ish. It is really hard to filter it out, basically the only way to make it a bit subtler is to fiddle with the vle/vpf thing (which is actually a great feature) but then when I get sort of satisfied with the mids a lot of presence gets lost in turn. It is just the way these amps are voiced, nothing much you can do. Some people dig it, some dont.

Mesa is another brand with weird mids to my taste (at least the big block 750 a friend of mine owns). Haven't tried other models to be honest though.

As for Mark Bass - their best sounding amp for my taste is the sa450 which is the smoothest and controlled of the bunch. Also maybe their little mark 2 but I like the sa450 more.

 

[KJMO]

Like others have said, it's good gear, but there is lots of good gear.

 

[Anders Barfod]

Combination of both. Also, the mid weirdness extends past 800hz all the way up to 2khz-ish. It is really hard to filter it out, basically the only way to make it a bit subtler is to fiddle with the vle/vpf thing (which is actually a great feature) but then when I get sort of satisfied with the mids a lot of presence gets lost in turn. It is just the way these amps are voiced, nothing much you can do. Some people dig it, some dont.

Mesa is another brand with weird mids to my taste (at least the big block 750 a friend of mine owns). Haven't tried other models to be honest though.

As for Mark Bass - their best sounding amp for my taste is the sa450 which is the smoothest and controlled of the bunch. Also maybe their little mark 2 but I like the sa450 more.

Nasal mid frequencies. For guitar 800Hz can give a nasal sound but bass.. Bass sits an octave below guitar.. Mid nasal sound on bass should be around 500Hz.. 2kHz for bass guitar is clarity. My problem with some bass cabs are this region. The crossover at 3.5kHz on a horn combined with a speaker t that has little output at 2-3kHz region gives closed sound with bass guitar when playing soft with fingers. TC Electronic cabs with the COAXIAL driver and a lower crossover freq has Much more pleasing natural sound than the low excursion 10s or 12s combined with a 3.5kHz crossover

 

[Frodolicious]

I guess I'm one of the few Markbass apologists these days. Going from a really crappy gear to Markbass, it was amazing how drool worthy my sound finally became. Never thought it was "sterile", and for blues gigs I play its really great stuff.

Never once out in the real world using their gear has anyone complained about the yellow cones. I have only heard that on Talkbass.

The little mark tube 800 has a ton of mids with my bass. Never felt there was the dreaded scoop people here complain about. Again, only a rallying cry that I've heard on talkbass. Some listen with their eyes instead of their ears